The Peaks and Pitfalls of Marketing in 2012

New Years is a time of reflection; a time to toast the wins and learn from the losses of the year that passed. Now that the champagne glasses are empty and the marketing agendas are full, here's a look back at some of the triumphs and tribulations Direct Marketing News covered in 2012.

February: With Valentine's Day falling smack dab in the middle of the month, February is often associated with spreading and sharing love. Facebook shared its love for advertising with the public by kicking off the month with a $5 billion IPO filing. The social network also named Rebecca Van Dyck as the company's first CMO. Conversely, the USPS experienced some heartache, losing $3.3 billion within the first three months of the organization's 2012 fiscal year. Additionally, the Obama administration unrolled the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights at the end of the month in an attempt to provide online consumers with more control over the tracking and gathering of customer data.

September: The spotlight fell on the search engine trio this past fall when Microsoft and Yahoo! rebranded its partnership as the Yahoo Bing Network and Google announced its Do Not Track settings for Chrome. The Internet Association also revealed the 14 companies selected to comprise the organization.

October:eBay took its first stab at loyalty marketing in the U.K. Also, ExactTarget paid a pretty penny and acquired Pardot for $85.5 million in cash and $10 million in equity, as well as product recommendation tool supplier iGoDigital for $14.7 million in cash and $6.3 million in equity. Additionally, the CMO's role continued to evolve.

November:Direct Marketing News celebrated and saluted its 40 under 40 winners. Notably, shoppers didn't have to wait until post-turkey to score some holiday deals as Black Friday promotions trickled throughout the savory month. Shoppers used a multitude of channels to complete their shopping in time for the holiday season.